Life Sciences Foundation (LSF) was a San Francisco-based

nonprofit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

that was established in 2011 to collect, preserve, interpret, and promote the history of

biotechnology Biotechnology is a multidisciplinary field that involves the integration of natural sciences and Engineering Science, engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms and parts thereof for products and services. Specialists ...

. LSF conducted historical research, maintained archives and published historically relevant materials and information. On December 1, 2015, the LSF and the Chemical Heritage Foundation finalized a merger, creating one organization that covers "the history of the life sciences and biotechnology together with the history of the chemical sciences and engineering." As of February 1, 2018, the organization was renamed the

Science History Institute The Science History Institute is an institution that preserves and promotes understanding of the history of science. Located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, it includes a library, museum, archive, research center and conference center. It was ...

, to reflect its wider range of historical interests, from chemical sciences and engineering to the life sciences and biotechnology. The organization is headquartered in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

but retains offices in the

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

Bay area.

Mandate

The LSF mandate was to collect and promote the history of biotechnology. This includes telling the stories of "scientists, inventors, entrepreneurs, managers, executives, and financiers" in order to "humanize" biotechnology to a lay audience. The history of the biotechnology industry includes examining the complex relationships and socio-political dynamics that occur when science and entrepreneurship come together.

History

The idea for a foundation that would collect and share the history of biotechnology came about at a meeting in early January 2009 in San Francisco attended by G. Steven Burrill of Burrill & Company,

Dennis Gillings Sir Dennis Barry Gillings (born 25 April 1944) is an American-based British billionaire statistician and entrepreneur, the founder and former chairman of Quintiles Transnational, a clinical research company, headquartered in Durham, North Car ...

Quintiles IQVIA, formerly Quintiles and IMS Health, Inc., is an American Fortune 500 and S&P 500 multinational company serving the combined industries of health information technology and clinical research. IQVIA is a provider of biopharmaceutical develop ...

Durham, NC Durham ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the county seat of Durham County. Small portions of the city limits extend into Orange County and Wake County. With a population of 283,506 in the 2020 census, Durham is the four ...

, John Lechleiter of

Eli Lilly and Company Eli Lilly and Company, Trade name, doing business as Lilly, is an American multinational Medication, pharmaceutical company headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, with offices in 18 countries. Its products are sold in approximately 125 count ...

Henri Termeer Henri A. Termeer (February 28, 1946 – May 12, 2017) was a Dutch biotechnology executive and entrepreneur. He served as CEO at Genzyme from 1981 to 2011. Termeer created a business model, subsequently adopted by others in the industry, based o ...

, then CEO of

Genzyme Genzyme (also known as Genzyme Transgenics Corp or GTC Biotherapeutics) was an American biotechnology company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. From its acquisition in 2011 to 2022 Genzyme operated as a fully owned subsidiary of Sanofi. In 2010, ...

and Arnold Thackray, founding President and CEO of the

Chemical Heritage Foundation The Science History Institute is an institution that preserves and promotes understanding of the history of science. Located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, it includes a library, museum, archive, research center and conference center. It was ...

(CHF) Thackray had shaped Chemical Heritage Foundation—"the premier institution preserving the history of chemistry, chemical engineering, and related sciences and technologies." Oral history was one component of the CHF mandate of preserving interpreting, and promoting the history of science. In 1982 the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

and the

American Chemical Society The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a scientific society based in the United States that supports scientific inquiry in the field of chemistry. Founded in 1876 at New York University, the ACS currently has more than 155,000 members at all ...

had launched the Center for the History of Chemistry which was renamed the Chemical Heritage Foundation (CHF) in 1992. Thackray, a Fellow of

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

, the

Royal Historical Society The Royal Historical Society (RHS), founded in 1868, is a learned society of the United Kingdom which advances scholarly studies of history. Origins The society was founded and received its royal charter in 1868. Until 1872 it was known as the H ...

and the

Royal Society of Chemistry The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) is a learned society and professional association in the United Kingdom with the goal of "advancing the chemistry, chemical sciences". It was formed in 1980 from the amalgamation of the Chemical Society, the ...

, Thackray received his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in the history of science from

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

. Thackray argued that before LSF was founded, the recorded history of biotechnology was "fragmented, uneven, and rather paltry." He observed that, "If you don't write your own history, somebody else will do it for you, and they may be hostile." By the end of 2011, LSF's steering committee of industry leaders—

Joshua Boger Joshua S. Boger (born April 12, 1951) is an organic chemist and the founder of Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated. He is considered a pioneer in the field of structure-based rational drug design. Drugs developed include amprenavir, an HIV prot ...

, Robert Carpenter, Bob Coughlin,

and Peter Wirth— were promoting the foundation's work by encouraging scientists and industrialists who were members of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, to contribute potential stories and materials to the archival record of the history of biotechnology in Boston and the surrounding region.

Oral History Program

The Life Sciences Foundation conducted

oral history Oral history is the collection and study of historical information from people, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews. These interviews are conducted with people who pa ...

interviews with scientists, entrepreneurs, executives, policy makers, and leaders of thought in the biotechnology industry. LSF's hosts timelines, transcripts and audio recordings and provides links to existing oral histories housed at institutions across the globe.

Publications

LSF historians work on a range of publications including a quarterly magazine, scholarly articles, white papers, and books. These works are intended for multiple audiences and focused on the emergence and evolution of biotechnologies in pharmaceutical discovery and development, agriculture, energy production, and

environmental remediation Environmental remediation is the cleanup of hazardous substances dealing with the removal, treatment and containment of pollution or contaminants from Natural environment, environmental media such as soil, groundwater, sediment. Remediation may be ...

. In October 2011, the

University of Chicago Press The University of Chicago Press is the university press of the University of Chicago, a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. It is the largest and one of the oldest university presses in the United States. It pu ...

released ''Genentech: The Beginnings of Biotech'' by Life Sciences Foundation historian Sally Smith Hughes.

Board of directors

Founding partners of the Life Sciences Foundation include Burrill,

Celgene Celgene Corporation, headquartered in Summit, New Jersey, was a pharmaceutical company that produced cancer and immunology drugs. Its primary products were Revlimid (lenalidomide), which is used in the treatment of multiple myeloma (63% of 2018 r ...

, John Lechleiter,

Genentech Genentech, Inc. is an American biotechnology corporation headquartered in South San Francisco, California. It operates as an independent subsidiary of holding company Roche. Genentech Research and Early Development operates as an independent cent ...

, Henri Termeer, Merck & Co., Millennium,

Pfizer Pfizer Inc. ( ) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Pharmaceutical industry, pharmaceutical and biotechnology corporation headquartered at The Spiral (New York City), The Spiral in Manhattan, New York City. Founded in 184 ...

, and

Thermo Fisher Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. is an American life science and clinical research company. It is a global supplier of analytical instruments, clinical development solutions, specialty diagnostics, laboratory, pharmaceutical and biotechnology s ...

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...

professor,

Phillip Sharp Phillip Allen Sharp (born June 6, 1944) is an American geneticist and molecular biologist who co-discovered RNA splicing. He shared the 1993 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Richard J. Roberts for "the discovery that genes in eukary ...

, serves as LSF's academic advisor. Its executive and advisory board members are leaders from biotech, venture capital, academic institutions and trade associations. When Thackray retired in 2012, Heather R. Erickson, 34, was appointed as LSF President and CEO and member of the Board of Directors. Thackray remained as LSF advisor to its scholarly activities. The Board also includes

Brook Byers Brook Byers (born August 2, 1945, Belleville, IL (Scott Air Force Base)) is a senior partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Early life and education Raised in Atlanta, Georgia, Byers earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering in ...

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers Kleiner Perkins, formerly Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), is an American venture capital firm which specializes in investing in incubation, early stage and growth companies. Since its founding in 1972, the firm has backed entrepreneur ...

Menlo Park, California Menlo Park ( ) is a city at the eastern edge of San Mateo County, California, San Mateo County in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, United States. It is bordered by San Francisco Bay on the north and east; East Palo Alto, California, Eas ...

, Carl B. Feldbaum of

Biotechnology Industry Organization The Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) is the largest advocacy association in the world representing the biotechnology industry. It was founded in 1993 as the Biotechnology Industry Organization from a merger of the Industrial Biotechno ...

(BIO)"GEN's 30th Anniversary: Biotech Trade Associations"
''Genetic Engineering News'', June 15, 2011. in Washington, DC who replaced Burrill, Frederick Frank of EVOLUTION Life Science Partners in New York, NY, Gillings in Durham, NC, LechleiterBloomberg BusinessWeek
/ref>The Wall Street Journal
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/ref>John C. Lechleiter Joins Nike's Board of Directors
, Press Release, June 18, 2009A Conversation with John Lechleiter
,

Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences The Harvard Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) is the largest of the twelve graduate schools of Harvard University, when measured by the number of degree-seeking students. Formed in 1872, GSAS is responsible for most o ...

, April 10, 2012 in Indianapolis, IN, Scott Morrison from San Francisco, CA,

Ivor Royston Ivor Royston is an American oncologist, researcher, scientist, entrepreneur and venture capitalist, recognized for his efforts to develop treatments for multiple disease targets and to fund biotechnology companies with promising science, technol ...

, MD, of Forward Ventures in San Diego, CA, Phillip Sharp from

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

in Cambridge, MA and Henri Termeer in Cambridge, MA. The first board of directors also included G. Steven Burrill, CEO of Burrill & Company— who also published The Journal of Life Sciences and Joshua Boger, former chairman and CEO of

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated is an American biopharmaceutical company based in Boston, Massachusetts. It was one of the first biotech firms to use an explicit strategy of rational drug design rather than combinatorial chemistry. It maint ...

References

External links

Official Life Sciences Foundation website
{{Authority control Biotechnology organizations Biotechnology literature Life sciences industry Non-profit organizations based in San Francisco History of medicine Organizations established in 2011 2011 establishments in California Medical and health foundations based in the United States 2011 in biotechnology